The Triplets of Belleville and La Planete Sauvage

The Triplets of Belleville was a cute animation that mixed in some darker themes and elements. I rather enjoyed the film, however, there were a couple parts that got me slightly confused, but overall, I feel as though for a film with little to no dialogue, it did a good job of portraying the story.

In terms of style, the way the characters were drawn gave each of them their own very different personality. While each story has several characters, this film in particular really played with the styles, especially since there was little to no dialogue. That is something that really interested me, I really appreciated how there was little dialogue, and yet everyone was pretty much able to follow the story line. The determination of the grandmother to find her grandson, the want the grandson had to ride a bike and to compete. Something that interested me was during the race; the grandson seemed to quit fairly easily, at least for someone who seemed to really want to race. For someone who trains a lot for a race, he seemed to quit too fast. However, even after that, he kept a rather indifferent facial expression throughout their kidnapping. While the other bikers seemed to be worried or exhausted, the grandson seemed to be content. What really got me what when they were actually racing and the other two bikers were biking as hard as they could and yet the grandson kept his neutral facial expression. Which brings the question if he really just wants to bike. If biking is all he really finds joy in, and even in the worst situations, as long as he can bike, he is happy and content.  Another element that I really liked was the sound effects that were put in the film. Since there was no dialogue, they had to use sounds to express the feelings and moods of the scenes. One instance that I really liked was when the bikers were taken; the sounds in the background were of horses, or of cattle. As if they are herding the bikers like animals, thus dehumanizing them and treating them like objects. This gives the film in this instance a serious mood and can also give a little foreshadowing of what is to come. Then whenever the bikers are seen, the sound is heard again. Reinforcing the image of animals. Then when the race actually happened and one biker fell off, the sounds were very similar to a horse that broke a leg. When a horse is unable to compete, they are killed, like the biker that fell off.  These sounds really gave the scene more meaning and gave it a more serious mood. The technique was just interesting to see and was interesting to see how they used it. 

 La Planete Sauvage was a little stranger than what I was expecting. While it was unusual, I did not think it was bad. The style was interesting and the story line was something different that I did not expect to see.   

The conflict, while not unusual, was something that always comes up, the conflict between oppressor and the oppressed and then a peaceful resolution. However, the environment and the characters were definitely unique to this film. Which is something I can admire, while it was not my favorite film, I still found it interesting. Both of the films we saw had a sense of dehumanizing humans, in the first, it was treating the bikers as animals, and in the second, it was treating humans as if they were not humans at all. More as if they were property and I looking back at the film, that element was what drove the story. While it gave the film its substance, I felt as though there was not enough development in the characters for it to counter the length of the film. For about an hour film, the characters remained mostly the same. This makes the audience feel dethatched with the characters. While the film’s style was unique I felt as though there were some parts of the film that were not developed enough.